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Friday, July 4, 2014

In the last one year, Khakhi has thrown me into an ocean of unpredictable routine. Quite often, what I think are my limits are tested only to find that they are no longer there. Every time when that happens, I feel I should pen down those incidents somewhere and share it with you all. But in the rush of routine duties, I was compelled to convince myself that there is no danger in peacefully forgetting them.

But, if I continue to do so, there is a danger of losing the values and lessons attached to them. And there is a real threat for existence of this blog! So, I am back here, to blog my random thoughts and share with you all and enjoy my favourite pastime, writing!

Some of those incidents which happened with me and my friends drove me crazy. They are important for a reason. No matter how hard a police man tries to discharge his duties, there is always a section of people who blame police for anything and everything under the sun and hold them responsible for an incident which they weren’t even part of. Take a look at some of these incidents.

1. A right wing Hindu organization stops a truck full of buffaloes heading to the slaughter house. Thinking that they are cows! Police requests a nearest Goshala (protective shelter for cows) to take care of buffaloes. Goshala refuses to accept the custody of these buffaloes saying they accept only cows and not buffaloes. The doctor, instead of giving clear opinion on whether they are fit for slaughter or not, just says they are not pregnant. Finally police requests the members of right wing Hindu organization to take custody of buffaloes and provide them with some fodder and water. They outrightly refused and said, it is Police’s job as they the buffaloes are in police possession now!

Court says nothing about where to keep those buffaloes and just says, “send them to Goshala”. Goshala refuse to accept them. In the end, police officer deputes two constables to feed and water the buffaloes and keep a watch on them. So, the buffaloes remains in the possession of police in the fear that if anything happens to buffaloes the same right wing Hindu organization would make an issue out of this and create a Law and Order situation. No one wants to take responsibility, neither court, nor political activists, nor doctor, none of them, just the police!

2. Father brutally murders daughter and the entire family makes this incident look as if she committed suicide by setting herself on fire. Neither close relatives nor the neighbours give a slightest clue to police about the most heinous crime. Women organizations and human rights wings blame police for not finding the truth (quickly?). Based on suspicious crime scene and the unique methods, police leaves no stone unturned to find evidences against the father and put him behind the bars. The wife and son of that man still feel he is innocent!

3. An old man dies due to sunstroke and his body is found in the cotton field. Two beat constables rush to the spot to investigate. Hundreds of villagers rush to the spot just to have a glance at the body. Not even a single one of them are willing to extended a helping hand to the police - in terms of providing most basic needs like a piece of cloth to cover the body, in terms of extending their helping hand to load the body into the vehicle. Owners of private vehicle in the village outrightly refuse to provide a vehicle to transport the body to hospital. Once the post mortem is done on an unidentified body, the entire responsibility of performing last rites rests on our police constables. They perform the last rites of a dead person who they have never seen in their entire life and bears the entire cost of this noble act without any hope of reimbursement from government.

4. Fickle minded teenage girl leaves home after an insignificant argument with parents. Heads to railway station to board a train to Mumbai, to pursue her “dream” of being on silver screen. On the way to railway station, auto driver sympathises her and this gullible girl finds a friend in him. In the same evening, the same auto driver along with two of his fellow auto drivers rapes the girl and leave her in a farm land. She comes to the nearest police station for help and she has absolutely no clue about those inhuman souls, not even their name. Newspapers starts their blame game. The police machinery have no idea where to look for. Yet, our men work with all the dedication to arrest those accused and put them behind the bar. After all this drama, the girl refuses to go home and the parents are reluctant to accept her. Police makes all the efforts to contact the child rights activists to counsel her and provide her with temporary shelter.

Police has no fixed role. It does all kind of crazy things, taking care of buffaloes to taking care of a rape victim. Taking the accident victims to hospital, counselling the husband-wife not to separate, chasing the thieves, arresting some crazy souls, finding a missing boy from neighbourhood, providing security to the political bosses, etc, etc, etc. If it rains and trees fall on road, police have to rush before citizen go crazy and start blaming them. If some crazy soul sets fire on something, police has to reach before the fire brigade comes. If some religious fanatics fight over a ridiculous issue, police has to rush to avoid a major Law and Order issue.

So, the overworked and underpaid policemen detaches himself with the emotions attached to those incidents, which he has to do. Otherwise he won’t be able to do discharge his duties fully. When these things become so routine, emotions find no meaning. There you go. The human rights and other activists throw some light on need for police to be sensitive to every such incident and show some emotion. What a situation to be in. Endless search for serenity! Despite all the odds, how this system is rolling on is a real mystery.

A nicely written blog..Its heartening to know that the Police have to face such a gamut of situations(from taking care of buffaloes to a rape victim). Hats off to you people since it require immense patience and wit to handle such situations.